'Life Is Sweet' won't be in lineup for San Diego

4-year-old filly hasn't taken to running on Polytrack

DEL MAR 
Life Is Sweet, the 4-year-old filly who finished third in last month's $700,000 Hollywood Gold Cup at Hollywood Park will not make the much-anticipated second straight run against males in Sunday's $250,000 San Diego Handicap here as expected.

Trainer John Shirreffs and owner Marty Wygod said yesterday morning that Life Is Sweet's name will not be placed in the entry box for the San Diego when the deadline strikes this morning. They said the decision had been all but finalized over the weekend and Wygod, of Rancho Santa Fe, said it was based on concerns over the filly's affinity for the Polytrack racing surface here.

“She didn't take to the track right away when we brought her down here (from Hollywood Park) and although she has been doing better over it lately, she's still not 100 percent,” Wygod said. “This has nothing to do with the dispute over Ingrid Fermin as a steward (at Del Mar).”

Wygod and some other owners and trainers have filed protests with the California Horse Racing Board over having Fermin, a former CHRB executive director, as one of the three-member board of stewards for the race meeting.

In her position as executive director, Fermin initiated an investigation of Wygod, a member of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Board of Directors, over alleged misconduct in circumstances surrounding the champion 3-year-old filly Sweet Catomine's fifth-place finish in the 2005 Santa Anita Derby.

The case was summarily dismissed in an initial hearing one month later.

Retired from her position with the CHRB, Fermin, a Del Mar resident, returned to her former job as a steward and was assigned by the CHRB to officiate, along with Scott Chaney and Tom Ward, the seven-week meeting.

“A very bad decision by the horse racing board,” Wygod said of the Fermin appointment.

Life Is Sweet is a full sister to Sweet Catomine, a Kentucky-bred daughter of standout sire Storm Cat and the Wygod mare Sweet Life. The third-place finish by Life Is Sweet in the Gold Cup was the first time since Sweet Catomine's Santa Anita Derby that Wygod, who owns the filly with his wife Pam, had run a female against males in a major race.

Shirreffs said that neither the Gold Cup performance nor the potential San Diego Handicap competition – which is expected to include defending race champion and reigning Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed – played a role in the decision.

Belated breakdown report

A previously unreported fatal breakdown came to light yesterday in an ambulance report dated last Friday.

Peanut Ridge, 2-year-old colt trained by John Tally for owner Frontier Stables LLC, fractured his right front ankle in a morning workout over the main track on July 23 and was euthanized a day later.

Peanut Ridge had one start, finishing seventh of 10 in a race at Lone Star Park in Texas on June 12.

It raised the total to six fatal breakdowns in a period from July 19 to 23, all but one on the Polytrack surface, two of those in morning workouts and three in afternoon races.

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club President and CEO Joe Harper said that no changes to the track have been contemplated as a result of the rash of fatalities.

“We've looked at the track every single way we can with every expert we've got, including horsemen, and they all say the track is fine,” Harper said.

“The track is in the best shape it has ever been, it's fair, we've had close, exciting races.

“We know the first week is when a track is most vulnerable. The culprit, if there is any, may be the change in surfaces (from Hollywood Park or other tracks to here). Not a change from good to bad or bad to good or anything like that, just different to different.”

Wolf Tail covered 5½ furlongs on the main track in 1:05.15 and earned $60,000 for owner/breeder Ed Delaney.

Closers

With three wins yesterday, Rosario moved past Tyler Baze and Joe Talamo to the top of the jockey standings. Rosario has eight wins to seven for Baze, who had one yesterday, and two in front of Talamo, who was blanked. . . . The first “Free and Easy Wednesday” promotional program of the meeting resulted in an on-track turnout of 14,503. The corresponding Wednesday to start the second week of the 2008 meeting drew 9,989. . . . The Daily Racing Form reported that injured jockey Rafael Bejarano has targeted August 28 for a comeback from the facial injuries, including a fractured left jaw, incurred in an accident on Opening Day, July 22.